Die Jugend war nur ein unbeholfenes täppisches Vorspiel zum vorzüglichen Alter. Die Jugend sollte an nichts anderes denken als an die Verehrung und Rücksichtnahme, die dem Alter gebürte. Abdereseits schuldete das Alter der Jugend nichts, nicht einmal etwas Höflichkeit.

John Steinbeck, Das Tal des Himmels (1969)

Long have we tended our beasts and our fields, built our houses, wrought our tools, or ridden away to help in the war of minas tirith. And that we called the life of men, the way of the world. We cared little for what lay beyond the borders of our land. Songs we have that tell of these things, but we are forgetting them, teaching them only to children, as a careless custom. And now the songs have come down among us out of strage places, and walk visible under the sun.

J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1956)

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked ...

Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1956)

She supposed the young men of Link's generation couldn't have manners like Mr. Powther's, though she didn't know why. Wars and atom bombs and the fact that there was so much hate in the world might have something to do with it.

Ann Petry, The Narrows (1953)